On October 12, 2018, the Dickinson Organization of Poetry Enthusiasts -- in conjunction with the Folger Coffee Company -- will present a very special birthday tribute to Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request). At the event, Meryl Streep and Starbucks' new robotic coffee barista named Servi-Tron will discuss the recent publication The Garbaged Somethings, a collection of scraps of paper and bits of trash on which Dickinson wrote lines of poetry and complete poems.

Pictured at the right: The DOPE brochure announcing the Emmett Lee Dickinson birthday tribute. Click the image to enlarge.

Below: The birthday tribute will be held at the Folger Coffee Company plant in historic Washerst, PA (the birthplace of Emmett Lee Dickinson).​

Below: The event will be held in the stunning Emmett Lee Dickinson Auditorium inside the Folger plant:​

​​Below: The Emmett Lee Dickinson Centennial Birthday Tribute in the Folger Coffee Company Auditorium in October of 1903. First years later, in 1953, the auditorium was re-named in honor of America's greatest poet.

Below: President Theodore Roosevelt was present at the 1903 Dickinson Centennial event. He was one of the keynote speakers.

As part of his address, Roosevelt said, "I am a part of everything that I have read, and all of Emmett Lee Dickinson is a part of me."

Below: On October 12, 1953, the Folger Coffee Company Auditorium was renamed the Emmett Lee Dickinson Auditorium, and the keynote speaker was Robert Frost. The guest list included President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Anthony Quinn, Shirley Booth, Thelma Ritter, William Faulkner, Ezra Pound, and Ethel Merman and her soon-to-be fiancé, Ernest Borgnine.

​Pictured at the right: One of the most significant events in 20th-century American history -- the marriage of Ethel Merman to Ernest Borgnine -- came about because the two met at the sesquicentennial birthday tribute to Emmett Lee Dickinson in 1953.

Inside the newly re-named Emmett Lee Dickinson Auditorium, Borgnine met Merman, to whom he became “instantly attracted”. Later he separated from his wife and proposed to Merman. He married Merman in 1964 at the Wasteria Motel in Washerst, PA, in an elaborate wedding ceremony attended by 500 guests. Prior to their marriage Ethel Merman claimed that she had “never felt so protected, this is forever, for keeps”.

Left and below: The Wastoria Motel has been synonymous with luxury since it first opened in Washerst, PA, in 1962. Guests at the Wastoria enjoy the following amenities:

Pictured at the left: In December 2018, the Folger Shakespeare Library will host a birthday tribute to Emmett Lee Dickinson's third cousin, Emily Dickinson. At the event, Jen Bervin and Martha Nell Smith will discuss The Gorgeous Nothings.